Sorry I got a bit off schedule with this update. These past few weeks have been super packed, leaving me with no time to work on my stories. So here is a long chapter for you!

In The Dark: [part 2]

...

3rd Person POV:

At NCIS, Mr. Scott was reviewing his latest photo collection with the agents. They had hoped that somewhere in the photos before and after the crime scene that they could pick up some more leads. However, Mr. Scott insisted they get large printouts of his photos. Abby held the large stack of prints awkwardly in her arms. As Mr. Scott reviewed them she would pull them out and place them on an easel for the whole room to look at. The agents stood by the wall while Gibbs sat with Mr. Scott and his assistant, Bryn.

"Uh, fifth photo was a…"

"Streetlight." Gibbs supplied, as Abby set the photo on the stand.

"Oh yeah, right. Halogen one. Let me see uh…." Mr. Scott let out a slow breath as he thought back to that particular photo. Meanwhile Abby and Bryn searched for the next photo, the assistant shooting the goth frustrated looks as the photos were practically manhandled.

"Oh yea, yea. There was a couple having a fight nearby. Hotdog vendor. And something that smelled like mothballs. I didn't get too close."

"The next one is…hang on…ugh. I'm not into…" Abby grunted in frustration as she shifted the photos in her arms. Meanwhile, Tony silently slipped into the room and sidled up to Claire along the wall. She glanced at him briefly.

"Bad news from the….I believe dentist this time?" she questioned stoically. Tony bit the inside of his cheek.

"Something like that." He muttered.

"Ah." Claire nodded stiffly, not believing the man for a second. Tony closed his eyes in aggravation but didn't want to press it further.

"I got it. I got it. Okay." Abby assured, placing the next photo on the stand.

"Um, this is number six."

"That's where Mr. Scott first picked up the fruit smell." Bryn, imputed.

"You were with him?" Gibbs inquired, looking up at her. She grinned minutely.

"No. I was in the office when he left." Claire watched curiously as the assistant's eyes shot down to her boss almost fondly.

"I work alone, and I like it that way." Mr. Scott added, pursing his lips.

"Bryn writes out press releases. So I had to go over all the photos with her this morning." The man added as explanation for her knowledge.

"Like I said, it was an unusual scent. So I followed it."

"Why aren't we using the plasma?" Tony inquired, watching Abby struggle to hold everything while Bryn hovered her arms under the pile of photos.

"He said he didn't like looking at his pictures on a computer." Claire answered blankly. His brow furrowed.

"He's blind." Tony quietly scoffed. Claire narrowed her eyes and elbowed him.

"But he's not deaf and not a robot. Show a little respect." She snipped. Tony quickly nodded in submission, going silent once more. Abby set up the next photo.

"Okay, um, this is seven. Looks like it, uh, could be a sewer." Mr. Scott chuckled, causing Abby to look over at him insecurely.

"And I'm the blind one. You got the photos out of order, honey. Number seven's the sky shot. Number 22 is a low angle." The man corrected. Claire blinked in surprise.

"Good memory." Gibbs commented.

"Yeah well, I don't have much choice. Either that or I break my nose walking into walls." The man answered wryly.

"Number 22 is where Mr. Scott lost the fruit smell." Bryn informed the team. Ziva stared at the photo with narrowed eyes.

"I recognize that graffiti. It's on the restaurant where I tracked Petty Officer Lynn to his last supper." She imputed thoughtfully.

"You found the restaurant?" Tony asked in surprise, having missed that little fact since he was gone.

"Well, there's not too many places that serve cheese blintzes." Abby answered.

"But no one remembers seeing the petty officer." Ziva tacked on, catching him up. She eyed Claire who remained silent; unwilling to help out.

"If he was the source of the smell, he never came out of there." Mr. Scott told them.

"And if he wasn't, then he was probably with the guy who was." Tony followed up.

"They could've used the back exit." Claire added for the first time. Ziva pointed her finger at the woman in agreement.

"Which would make sense if they were having a meeting and were worried about being followed." At that, Mr. Scott jolted up and tapped his hand on the desk towards Bryn.

"Hey, hey, check uh.. number 18. There was a car idling outside the restaurant." He informed eagerly. Abby tried to pull the photo out, but lost control and all the photographs fell to the ground. Abby groaned apologetically.

"Sorry."

"I'll get those." Bryn assured, leaning down to pick them off the floor. Abby nodded and made her way over to the laptop next to Gibbs.

"Time to go digital." She muttered with a grin as she pulled up the photos on the plasma screen in the room, feeling much more comfortable now that she had technology.

"How long was he there?" Gibbs inquired.

"He was still there when I left." They all turned to watch as Abby clicked through the photos before landing on the one they wanted. A photo of the front of the restaurant with very slanted and blurry cars out front popped up.

"Can you get the license?" Tony asked, squinting hard at the image of the car. With a smirk Abby zoomed in on the partial license and worked her magic to reveal part of the plate.

...

...

Claire's POV:

Down in the bullpen, Ziva was working on pulling up the information on the owner of the car in the photo. Gibbs hovered over her shoulder.

"Accessing the Virginia DMV." She murmured, watching the long list of names fly across the screen.

"We only have a partial plate, but we can narrow down by make and model." Tony told her helpfully. Ziva's eyes flashed at him in sarcastic delight.

"Really?"

"Sarcasm is not sexy, Ziva." Tony shot back, unamused at her tone.

"Narrowing the list down to make and model." Ziva announced dramatically while Gibbs stepped closer to the big screen in the center of the room. I watched from my desk across the way, purposefully putting space between me and Tony.

"Got it. License plate: TA5-4021. Registered to a David Wong, 41. Civilian." I read off just as the results popped up on the screen. Taking the information, I quickly typed his name into the database.

"Record?" Gibbs inquired, looking over at me as I typed away on the keyboard.

"Guy's squeaky clean. No criminal record. No outstanding parking tickets. Works in Inventory Management at the Defense Logistics Agency." I read off. However the name of the company was familiar. Some place as Petty Officer Lynn.

"Who else works there, she thought sexily." Tony mused playfully, recognizing the name as well. I shot him a dry look at his attempt of flattery. He was trying way to hard to get on my good side. It wasn't going to work unless someone started telling me what was going on. But it didn't look like that was happening any time soon.

"I know a petty officer who used to, and just as squeaky." Ziva chimed in, quickly pulling my attention away from Tony.

"Call McGee and have him bring David Wong in here." Gibbs ordered. Tony reached over and pressed the speed dial on his desk phone, setting it on speaker.

"I was just about to call you, Tony." McGee greeted as he picked up. Tony frowned.

"I was gonna say great minds think alike, but, well, you know."

"I've got a lead."

"Yeah, we do too. We found a car outside the restaurant Petty Officer Lynn ate at. A Honda. License plate…"

"TA5-4021?" Those in the room stared at the phone in surprise.

"Good guess." Ziva hummed curiously.

"Not a guess. I'm standing right in front of it. I spoke to Petty Officer Lynn's superiors. They had a lot of nice things to say about him. It's a guy in the office across the hall they were worried about."

"David Wong." Gibbs supplied.

"That's right."

"Why were they worried?" Claire asked hesitantly.

"He went for lunch hours ago. Never came back." The agents all shared a look. That didn't sound like the actions of an innocent man.

...

...

The next morning didn't bring much promise. We had a name but that was about it.

"No hits on the BOLO yet." Tony informed as we stared at the photo of our new prime suspect.

"Co-workers said he's been acting strange all week." McGee added.

"If he planned his run, it'll make him that much harder to find." Ziva pointed out with a frown.

"He's already got a head start." I agreed.

"Did you track his cell calls yet?" Gibbs asked as he joined them in the office. We all quickly straightened up at his arrival.

"Agent Lee's getting the warrant at the US. Attorney's office." McGee answered.

"And Abby's processing evidence from his office. She nearly bit my head off when I poked into her lab to check on her." Tony frowned in confusion as he thought back on her behavior. I smirked, already knowing what had her all amped up. I was surprised she was holding out this long.

"Quit drinking caffeine." I informed him. His eyebrows shot up to his hairline. Not that a blame him. I was just as surprised when she told me.

"Abby?" Ziva asked in shock.

"Abby Sciuto?" Tony winced as his head was slapped from behind.

"Yes, boss?"

"Wong. David Wong." Gibbs insisted, pointing at the man on the screen. We all quickly turned our gaze back to the screen.

"We have two competing theories on Mr. Wong. Theory one…" Tony began, pointing towards Ziva with a dramatic flair.

"It is possible that David Wong and Petty Officer Lynn were working together."

"And then they had a fall out and Wong ended their relationship." I finished for her. Tony nodded and spun his hand around before pointing at McGee.

"Theory two: The commander from the IG had it wrong about Petty Officer Lynn."

"Wong was selling the info. Lynn found out. Wong killed him for it." Gibbs surmised, catching on to the thought process.

"We figure out a motive, we figure out where he's going." Tony added.

"First, we need a warrant." Ziva hummed. Just as she finished, a new voice joined in.

"I've got it right here." Palmer walked up to the bullpen with the paperwork in hand. Everyone in the room turned to stare at him oddly. He hardly ever left autopsy, let alone to make deliveries for people other than Ducky.

"Why do you have it?" I asked in confusion. Jimmy flushed uncomfortably.

"Uh, Agent Lee faxed this over. I thought I'd run it up to you." he explained, handing the file to Gibbs who was at his desk. Gibbs held up the file.

"McGee."

"Yea, on it boss. All right pulling up his records." McGee nodded, sitting at his computer and putting in the information. Meanwhile, Palmer lingered in the room and wandered over behind Gibb's desk. He not so subtly scanned around the area, as if looking for something. I remained staring at him, watching him spin around. The others noticed my gaze and turned to look as well.

"Hey." Gibbs barked, startling the man.

"Do you need something else?"

"Uh no." Jimmy abruptly denied and turned to walk away. Two steps in he realized he went the wrong direction and turned around, not facing any of our curious stares.

"That's weird." I pointed out with a frown.

"Palmer's been acting like that all morning. Earlier, I caught him at the gym hiding in the towel bins." McGee elaborated. I shook her head, not really wanting to dwell on what the man was doing. I had been involved in too many weird happenings with him already. A phone buzzing caught my attention and I looked over to spot Tony staring down at the caller ID on his cell before tucking it away with a frown.

"Bank records coming up." McGee told the group.

"You know what, I got to make a pit stop." Tony dismissed himself, walking out of the room. I watched him with narrowed eyes and turned to look over at Ziva who was also watching. I blinked at her, silently asking if she knew what that was about. Ziva shook her head and looked back at the screen. Annoyance crept over me once more, a feeling I was becoming accustomed to nowadays. Just another random disappearance to add to the list.

...

...

3rd Person POV:

Around the corner of the large stairwell, Tony hopped up on his tiptoes to make sure his team on the other side was well distracted. Shrinking back he walked over to lean against the corner to make sure he was well hidden.

"I can't think of anything charming or pithy to say." He crooned, answering his cell.

"Well, I have fantastic news. I think I found us a place." Jeanne told him on the other line.

"Wow, that's great." Tony commented in surprise. That was fast.

"It's a three-bedroom apartment, not far from the university or the hospital. And has really cute floral wallpaper."

"Ah, ha..wow…..That….that…that's great." Tony stuttered unconvincingly, totally at a loss of how to sell this. It was too fast.

"Great as in great, or great as in you're having second thoughts?" Jeanne asked warily, obviously picking up on his hesitance.

"I'm not having second thoughts…Is there a third option?" he winced, already knowing how bad that sounded.

"Don't do this to me, Tony."

"Jeanne…."

"You didn't have to say anything yesterday. You could have just given me a hug and told me everything would be okay. That would have been more than enough. But don't tell me you wanna live with me, and then take it back." Jeanne told him. Tony could hear the hurt in her voice. He had to push onward.

"I am not taking it back. When I suggested that we live together, I was speaking from…you know….what's the thing in your ribcage?"

"Heart." Jeanne sighed with a reluctant grin.

"Heart. Yeah….. I was. And I am. And I meant it, and I'm just…" he explained gently, not wanting to make a bad situation any worse.

"A commitment phobe? Afraid to love?"

"Right in the middle there." Tony chuckled dryly….it seemed like an appropriate answer. He was wary about commitment for sure, but he had warmed up to the idea when it was the right person.

"And I'm ahem….just not very focused right now. And I'm not a big fan of floral, I'll be honest with you." he pushed onward, keeping his voice even.

"Okay, then. I'll keep looking if you're sure that's all that it is." Jeanne assured him gently.

"Yeah, I'm sure."

"Then what are you doing on the phone? Get back to work." She teased.

"Yes, ma'am." Tony sighed as he hung up the phone. He turned around to rejoin his team…only to see them staring at him curiously. Tony froze.

"Hi." He muttered, unsure of how to proceed. McGee grinned, Caf-pow in hand.

"Hey. Abby called. She found something. Wanted us to come down." He informed the man. Tony's eye twitched as they approached.

"If you're done, that is." Claire added stiffly. Tony glanced at her but refocused on Gibbs, knowing he would be the one to chew him out at the moment.

"I'm sorry, boss. I'm…."

"I know DiNozzo, trust me. I know." Gibbs assured pointedly. Tony blinked, wondering what Gibbs was doing that he could relate to the situation. How much did he know?

"Well, I'm going to run this down to Abby and maybe convince to go get over this caffeine strike. For all our sanity." Claire muttered uncomfortably. She grabbed the cup from McGee and practically bolted from the scene. Gibbs and McGee followed after her. However, Ziva stayed behind.

"How long were you guys there?"

"Long enough." Tony's eyes shot to her in alarm, darting back to where Claire had left with the rest of the group. How much had she heard?

"She was only there for the last bit. Just about searching for an apartment. Not the…..new roommate bit." Ziva assured him, frowning. She didn't like hiding yet another thing from her teammate. Out of all of them Claire deserved to know what was going on. And being out of the loop was having very negative effects on all of them.

"So new roommate?" she redirected. Tony glanced around to make sure the rest of the team was truly gone before leaning against the wall next to her, being sure to keep his voice low.

"We're discussing it." he muttered, his eyes cutting to anywhere but her.

"What's there to discuss?"

"It's complicated." Ziva scoffed, rolling her eyes.

"Complicated, complicated, complicated." She muttered sourly.

"You know in America, I have noticed they use that word as a code for: If I explain it, you would not agree. Therefore, I'll use the word complicated and hopefully you will stop asking."

"That's pretty much it in a nutshell." He muttered tightly.

"Are you sure it's complicated because of your girlfriend? Or is there someone else keeping you from moving forward?" she asked pointedly. Tony clammed up, knowing she was talking about Claire.

"Why would it be someone else?"

"Because you do not want her to know about a relationship that seems very serious. I can't help but wonder why you would keep something like this from one of your closest friends. You say it's because she would react badly but I am not so sure. If she is your friend then she will support you, no?" Ziva pointed out, watching his reaction. He shook his head defiantly.

"I'll see what Abby wants." He deflected, taking a step away from her. Ziva was not about to let him leave that easily.

"Tony." She admonished gently, pulling him back.

"Ziva. If you're gonna give me advice on dating, I'm gonna need to get something out of my system first, okay?" Tony requested. After a beat a grin broke across his face as he began laughing. Ziva pursed her lips in annoyance and the man guffawed at the idea of her giving him love advice.

"Stop laughing or I will hurt you." she warned. Tony quickly settled down.

"I know what you're doing. You're hiding behind all these jokes. And I know what you're hiding from."

"Really? What's that?" Tony hummed, a false grin on his lips as he stared back at her.

"What everyone who is afraid to love hides from. Getting hurt." She told him seriously. The grin slowly slipped off his face. He didn't give her enough credit if she was able to peg that so quickly.

"It's not just me that I'm worrying about hurting, Ziva." He admitted. Tony didn't want to hurt Jeanne, who he had grown to care for as a friend. And ultimately, he didn't want to hurt Claire. If she found out he was dating and potentially moving in with another woman she would be devastated. He knew she was holding out for him to come back; she had told him that much when he initially broke it off with her. He couldn't do something so despicable like that to her. Just the thought made his insides crawl. He hated the men that played with women so viciously like that. If he was the cause of such hurt, he knew it would wound him deeply. There was just a no-win scenario in this. Ziva watched quietly as a flurry of deep emotions rushed across the man's face.

"That's because you're a good person." She told him honestly. Her heart went out to the man. Tony was obviously at odds with himself and was worried about what the relationship would hold. Whoever he was protecting was very important to him. She just wasn't 100% sure which party he was protecting the most.

...

...

Downstairs in Abby's lab.

"It's a low-frequency acoustic RF-buffered transmitter." Abby explained as she pulled out the tiny piece of metal with her tweezers.

"English, Abs." Gibbs requested.

"It's a bug." McGee answered. Abby grinned, looking back at the device.

"I found it embedded underneath the Caps Lock key of David Wong's keyboard." She explained as Ziva and Tony joined the group in the room. Claire glanced up at them momentarily, before she quickly turned her gaze back to Abby.

"I thought the DLA ran routine security sweeps." Tony pointed.

"How did they miss it?" Ziva asked.

"They same way I almost did." Abby answered, running the bug along her detector. They all watched her work as she continued her explanation.

"To avoid detection from internal sensors, the bug records for five hours….." she leaned over and deeply inhaled the caf -pow that was in Claire's hand. Everyone stared at her owlishly while she was in her caffeine crave daze.

"…..and then blast sends the data in under five seconds." She whispered, after blinking off the caffeine smell.

"That little bug can do all that?" Claire inquired, ignoring her friend's behavior.

"Yeah. It can if it only records a few tiny sub-audible frequencies."

"Sub-audible meaning?" Tony inquired.

"Humans can't hear it." McGee told him. Tony rose his brow.

"So, what, Lassie's bugging this guy?" he asked dryly.

"I think he bugged himself." Abby revealed with a grin. They all stared at her in surprise, causing her grin to widen.

"Don't you like the way I do that? Like, right when you think you know where I'm going, it's like, shazam. A hard turn…." She rambled animatedly, dropping out when she leaned in to smell the drink once more.

"He bugged himself?..." Abby didn't answer.

"Abs?" she blinked hard once again, leaning away from the temptation.

"Sorry, Gibbs. I'm just a little bit distracted." Gibbs rolled his eyes and reached over for the caf-pow before tossing it into the trashcan. He walked over to look at the big screen where a blow up photo of the bug was.

"Better. Sub-audible bug. Whoever planted it wasn't eavesdropping on conversations. They were listening to keyboard key makes a similar but unique sound. With the right software, you can record the keystrokes. Using algorithm, you can figure out what was typed." Abby told the team, while typing out a message which was decoded in front of them.

"The virtual Rosetta stone." McGee mused.

"A bug like this would bypass all security protocols. No password would be safe."

"David Wong had access to some pretty sensitive info." Tony pointed out from the back.

"Why would he need to bug himself? He already knew his passwords." Claire asked the room.

"No, he didn't." McGee countered in realization. They all turned to him curiously.

"The DLA uses RSA secure ID. It's a hardware token that regenerates authentication every minute." He elaborated, walking over to join Abby by the computers. She nodded along with his answer.

"If Wong had a partner, the best way to give him access would be to.."

"Bug himself." Gibbs finished for her. Abby rose her hands in congratulations as Gibbs approached them.

"Does this record more than passwords?" he inquired.

"It records everything that's typed."

"Okay, let's see it."

"Well, we can't, because it broadcasts and then it dumps." Abby told him with a wince.

"We could try the buffer." Tony suggested offhandedly as he looked down at his notepad. The room went silent as everyone turned to face him with various looks. At the lack of answer Tony slowly looked up.

"Sorry. You guys say that every once in a while, so I thought…" he shrugged. Abby blinked.

"He's right." She realized with a small grin. Claire and Ziva frowned at her.

"He is?"

"I am?" Tony asked in surprise.

"If we treat the buffer like a normal hard drive, even if it erased itself,we should be able to get something off of it." Abby looked to McGee as she thought aloud. The man nodded and quickly began typing away on her computer.

"Accessing the RAM buffer." He muttered. After a few seconds for the buffer to work, a list of sites that had been typed came up on the screen.

"We got something. Wong was looking for directions to an abandoned DLA warehouse." Abby relayed.

"Perhaps a rendezvous with his buyers?" Ziva suggested.

"Or he's worried we traced the murder of Petty Officer Lynn to him and he decided to run." McGee added. Gibbs pointed at Abby insistently.

"Address?"

"Got it." Tony nodded, having already written it down when he saw the end of the sentence.

"That's good work, Abs." Gibbs praised before taking off with the rest of the team on his tail. Once they leave, Abby lifts up her small trashcan to smell the caf-pow. Claire popped her head back into the lab.

"Abby!" she scolded in surprise. Abby's head shot up and she smiled at her friend sheepishly.

"I'll put it down." She assured, setting the can down accordingly.

"After this…..we need to talk." Claire chuckled, running back out of the room once she was satisfied Abby had put the caffeine away for now.

...

At the warehouse, the agents had found David Wong. However, it was not in the way they had anticipated. Instead of finding the man hiding out in the warehouse, they found him hanging by a noose from the rafters. Once Ducky had collected the body, he was able to give them more answers now that their only suspect was dead. Gibbs had his suspicions about whether Mr. Wong actually committed suicide. After all, the 'mugging' was only staged to look that way. What really drove it home was the fact that that the suicide note was signed, David B. Wong...but his middle name was George. So why the B?

...

Claire's POV:

Back up in the bullpen, the 'suicide note' had been put up on the screen for us to figure out that very question. Why did he sign a B?

"Perhaps he was sending us a message." Ziva suggested.

"Letter B is not much of a message." McGee countered.

"I find it very doubtful that he would make a mistake." Ziva insisted. I nodded along.

"She's right. Signing your name correctly wouldn't take any effort, after a while its automatic. However, if he wrote a note under duress the message would have to be something the killer would not notice."

"Could be part of the killer's initials." Tony suggested, narrowing his eyes in thought. I shot him a dull stare. It was an idea...just not a very good one.

"Is that what you'd write?" I asked pointedly. He narrowed his eyes irritably.

"No. Two letters would be circumstantial. One letter's just useless."

"Perhaps there is another place where David Wong used the false initial." Ziva redirected.

"I already checked. DMV, bank records, the only place that Wong used the letter B is on the suicide note." McGee countered, zooming in on the signature at the bottom.

"Maybe it wasn't one letter, then." Gibbs suggested.

"McGee, run it." McGee scanned over the letter until Gibbs pointed to one of the words.

"Whoa, stop right there. There." the word 'but' was blown up. Suddenly I could see the inconsistency.

"What?" McGee asked.

"The B's are different." I explained, straightening up. McGee put the two Bs side by side.

"Thirteen. It's not a letter, it's a number." Ziva muttered, now that we could see the difference clearly. The B in his name was spaced out and looked like the number 13 close together.

"Actually, I think it's both. Boss, I think this is an I and a three together." McGee pointed out. Gibbs turned towards the man, waiting for him to continue.

"After Wong's suicide note, I checked his office's records. They code their invoices with an I followed by a number corresponding to a department. I'd gotten as far as I-5, but I didn't find anything to corroborate the claim of embezzlement."

"Look again." Gibbs ordered.

"That's good advice, Gibbs. That's exactly what I did." Abby answered, striding into the room.

"You're gonna love what I found."

...

With her declaration, we all followed her down to the lab where she was running a recognition software on Mr. Scott's photos. Walking over towards the plasma screen she began her explanation.

"The first thing I did when I got the photos…."

"Was run facial-recognition software on every face you could find."

"Which led nowhere." Ziva and Tony tagged on her for. Abby pursed her lips and sighed.

"Thank you both for that reminder of my failure." She muttered.

"You haven't failed me yet." I grinned encouragingly at her. Abby beamed.

"I thought I had squeezed all the data I could out of the photos until Jackson Scott walked in and humbled me. The man uses echolocation to find obstacles in his way. No Shamu jokes." Abby warned, seeing the expression on Tony's face. No doubt ready to make one of those very comments. I grinned, watching Tony deflate as he realized he was caught.

"Echolocation is reflected sound, which made me think of reflected images, which made me find this." she finished, pulling up a very blurred streak of a restaurant window. We all frowned at it.

"I know it's a blur. But that's because of the photons of light in the image, they're spread out in time."

"But you can de-spread them." Tony pointed out.

"Well the technical term is de-convolution, but yeah. I calculated the shutter speed, merging the photons into a coherent image. The final results are still processing, but this is good enough for an ID. Look familiar?" Abby inquired as a face finally came into view.

"Very." I murmured in surprise. This was one person I definitely didn't anticipate.

...

...

3rd Person POV:

Up in interrogation Claire sat across from Mr. Scott's assistant, Bryn. The duo sat in silence while Claire scanned over the folder in her hand. She glanced up at the other woman.

"Relax. There's nothing to be nervous about."

"Then why am I in an interrogation room?"

"That's a good point. Maybe you should be nervous." Claire shrugged thoughtfully. Bryn pinched her lips in annoyance.

"I haven't done anything wrong." She insisted.

"Actually, you did. But don't worry we're going to give you another chance to correct it. We like second chances." Claire chirped, straightening up as she began.

"So, tell us again where were you the night your boss took this picture?" Claire inquired, pulling up the photo where they found the Petty Officer. Bryn sighed heavily.

"I told you already. I was in Mr. Scott's office until 6, then I went straight home."

...

"She was at your loft when you left?" Tony asked Mr. Scott in the observation room. They were listening in to the interrogation going on with the women.

"I told you that already too. I'm blind but you guys are deaf." Mr. Scott huffed.

"Do you believe her?" Gibbs inquired. The man shrugged.

"Well, why would I think she's lying?"

"Because she is." Ziva chimed in coolly. Mr. Scott's brows furrowed as they focused back on the other conversation.

...

"So if you went straight home, then what are you doing in this photo your boss took that night?" Claire asked, setting the updated photo Abby had processed on the table. Bryn stared at it silently.

...

"It's interesting you didn't notice she was there."

"Yet you noticed everything else." Tony and McGee pointed out. Mr. Scott grinned wryly.

"I see. She's not the only one being interrogated." He hummed.

...

"Care to change your testimony?" Claire suggested.

"I took the long way home. I must have walked by where Mr. Scott was shooting. If I did, I didn't realize he was there." Bryn corrected with a tight grin. Claire narrowed her eyes curiously at the lie.

...

"So you two were within 20 feet of each other" Tony pointed out.

"And you never knew the other was there." Ziva finished with hum.

" It's possible that Bryn wouldn't have noticed me. I work hard to keep myself below people's radar. But I would have certainly noticed her." Mr. Scott told them, bothered that he didn't know she was there.

"Why didn't you?" Gibbs asked. The man licked his lip and shook his head.

"I don't know."

...

"We're getting closer. But here's the problem with that version. We showed your photo to the staff at the restaurant where Petty Officer Lynn was having his last supper, and one of the waiters identified you at the lobby." Claire began, standing up to circle the room while Bryn sat quietly.

"You being at the same restaurant as Petty Officer Lynn a coincidence too? Because I don't think the jury will see it that way. What they will see is the person he had dinner with, and lured him to the underpass and stabbed him to death."

"No. Okay, that's not what happened." The woman denied.

"Then tell me what did." Claire insisted sharply. Bryn licked her lips.

"I was following Mr. Scott. But I lost him for a few minutes. I just ducked into the restaurant for a second when he came around the corner and surprised me." She grinned wryly while Claire watched her expressions quietly.

"Jackson's harder to follow than you'd think. I have to wear special shoes and perfume when I follow him." she explained.

"Fruity perfume by any chance?" Claire asked, quieter than earlier.

"Lavender."

"Why were you following him?" Bryn hesitated.

"I don't understand this."

"Why where you following him?"

"I called NCIS."

"Why where you following him!" Claire snapped, sending the other woman into silence. Bryn didn't answer but her expression said it all. She looked up at her interrogator with pleading eyes. Claire sat back as it dawned on her. She understood that look, and now her actions were coming into focus.

"You're in love with him." Bryn's deprecating grin broke through as she all but admitted it.

"If you think his photos are brilliant, you should see him work. He can't see but he still sees more than most people. I lied to you because if Jackson knew I was following him he'd….." Claire bit her lip, knowing that the man was listening in the other room. She only hoped that they would cut out the sound soon. It wasn't fair to have her pour out her heart thinking her secret was safe. Claire new she would have hated that.

"I didn't see your petty officer. And if he was there when I was, I wouldn't have noticed."

...

Once Bryn was finished, Gibbs signaled for them to cut out the sound from the room. Mr. Scott stared ahead in shock as he processed what was said.

"For a man who can see more than most people, I managed to miss the thing that counts the most. Better late than never, I suppose." He whispered. Tony watched the two women in the room talk. From the softer body language and expressions, he could only imagine that Claire was empathizing with the other woman. It hit him hard watching it, so he turned away to face their other guest.

"Are you going to let her go now?"

"Now, no. After we corroborate, yeah." Tony assured.

"Maybe Wong's suicide note was legit after all." McGee mused. The door abruptly opened up to reveal Palmer, who stared wide eyed at the group. Mr. Scott perked up, his brows furrowing thoughtfully as he focused on the newcomer. Gibbs watched his reaction intently.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I was just looking for some, uh, pipettes which are clearly not here." He stuttered uncomfortably. Before he could leave Gibbs grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him back into the room. Jimmy watched as Mr. Scott approached him, sniffing.

"What?" Gibbs inquired as he held the man still.

"The fruit smell from that night." Mr. Scott explained, leaning in closer.

"Oh. Oh, my gosh. I forgot to take my insulin. I was so busy looking for the…pipettes, I forgot." Palmer explained in realization.

"Insulin?" Tony inquired.

"Yeah, I have mild diabetes. When my blood sugar spikes, my breath gets this mild fruity smell." he began breathing into his hand to try and smell his breath.

"Is it really that bad?" he asked, lifting his hand to Gibbs who flinched back. Looking around the room he narrowed his eyes warily at the group who had gone silent.

"Why is everyone looking at me like I'm in some kind of trouble?"

...

...

The agents followed a guide to Commander Jacobson's office at DLA. After knocking, the man showed them in while the commander cleaned up his desk.

"Well, I got your message. What's this about a breach of our security?" the man asked curiously, watching as the group filed in.

"We believe someone's been running a bogus investigation out of your office." Tony explained.

"The Lynn case?" he asked, blowing his nose loudly into another tissue as he stood.

"Our suspect told Petty Officer Lynn a co-worker was under investigation for embezzling." McGee explained.

"A lie." Gibbs commented, staring the man down.

"And asked Lynn to plant a bug in the co-worker's office." McGee finished.

"That co-worker was David Wong. The lie was to get Wong's password to the DLA accounting database." Claire added on as she watched Tony and McGee slowly walk around the man's desk.

"The suspect was the one who was embezzling" Gibbs continued.

"You can check the DLA ledger I-3. It's all there." McGee added with a small grin. Jacobson blew his nose again as he watched the agents warily.

"The funny part is, Wong grew suspicious and contacted you, which is ironic, since you were the one running the bogus investigation out of this office in the first place." Tony mused.

"We traced the logons to the DLA servers back to your computer. Also, a waiter places you at the restaurant with Lynn." Claire tacked on.

"And we have come to believe that it was Colonel Mustard in the conservatory with a wrench." Tony declared with a small grin. Claire shot him a mildly amused glance. The commander stood there quietly for a moment, knowing he was found out.

"How?" he asked, looking at them curiously.

"Jackson Scott decided to follow the fruit." Gibbs explained vaguely. Meanwhile, Tony had walked over and pulled out the man's desk drawer. He reached in and pulled out an insulin injector.

"As a diabetic, you should have skipped the cheese blintz." Tony informed the man who glared at him. Suddenly Tony's face scrunched up and he sneezed, shooting the commander a scathing glare afterwards. Claire barked out a laugh. In her opinion he deserved it.

...

...

That night after everyone had left the office, Tony was left alone. He frowned as he scanned through his personal emails, looking over the links to apartments that Jeanne had sent him. A heavy sigh left his lips as his head fell forward.

"Apartment listings?" a voice asked from behind him. Tony yelped in surprise, whirling around to see Claire looking at the screen with interest. He swallowed.

"What are you still doing here?" he asked with a small glare. She glanced down at him passively.

"Snooping." Tony's eyes narrowed at her honestly.

"Why?"

"Well how else am I supposed to figure out what's going on? No one else will talk to me." She pointed out sourly. Tony flushed at her words, realizing that things had officially gotten out of hand.

"So…..you're moving apartments? Any particular reason?" she inquired hesitantly, as if afraid he would shut down on her all over again. Tony bit his lip.

"Uh….I think so. It's just a thought right now." He grunted noncommittally. Claire rose a brow as she turned towards him.

"Why are you moving so far from work?...and who's Jeanne?" she asked, leaning in to look at the emails. Tony stood up to block her vision as he quickly exited out of his account. Blue eyes watched him intently as he jerked about.

"She's my real estate agent." He muttered quickly.

"Okay…..and why is she looking for places close to the university? Taking classes?" Claire pressed, seeing how far he would let her go. This was the most he had gotten out of him in a while. Tony glanced down at her sharply.

"No reason. I just like the area. Isn't that enough?" She narrowed her eyes at his defensiveness. The two stood in silence, waiting for the other one to break first. Claire nodded and turned away first. Tony, not wanting her to leave, decided to speak up. If he had a chance to talk with her he should take it.

"Is there anything else you wanted to talk about?" he inquired quietly, shuffling his feet as he waited. Claire rose a brow.

"Are you going to tell me about the 'dentist appointments' and the midday phone calls?" she inquired. Tony scowled.

"Nothing to tell. Just teeth talk and real estate." He mumbled unconvincingly. Claire nodded sharply.

"Then we have nothing else to talk about." She huffed. Tony blinked, his anxiety rising as he watched her start to walk off.

"Wait." He called, taking a few steps to follow her. Claire sighed and turned to face him.

"That's it? You have nothing else to say to me anymore?" he pressed. Claire threw her arms up in frustration.

"What else can I say? Tony, I know there is something going on that you aren't telling me. Apparently you are fine telling the others but for some reason I'm out of the loop. Honestly, I'm tired of this. I don't have the energy to fight you anymore. If you don't want to tell me why you're suddenly so secretive then fine. But I'm not pretending like things are okay anymore. Clearly they're not." She admitted heatedly, her voice falling flat as she finished. The two lapsed into silence once more. Tony frowned in anguish as he scanned over her exhausted expression. She truly was done trying to fight it. Had he taken it so far that they couldn't even talk anymore?

"I'm trying, just give me some time." He requested sadly. Claire's lips thinned into a bitter smile.

"I don't know if I can believe you anymore." She whispered, her eyes becoming wet with frustrated tears. Spinning back around she made her way out of the room, walking into the elevator. Tony stood there in the once again empty bullpen, his mind racing with what this all meant. He had pushed Claire to the end of her rope without even realizing it. Was all of this going to be for nothing? Had he already lost her for good? The vibration of his cell broke him out of his miserable thoughts. Sulking back over to his desk he looked down to see Jeanne's name flash across the screen. He didn't answer it.